0^5 


Soldiers  and  Sailors   Historical  Society 
of  Rhode  Island 


Personal  Narratives 

SIXTH  SERIES,   No.  4 


Extracts  from  my  Diary,  and  from  my  Experi- 
ences while  Boarding  with  Jefferson  Davis, 
in   Three  of  His    Notorious  Hotels,  in 
Richmond,    Va.,    Tuscaloosa,    Ala., 
and  Salisbury,  N.  C,  from  July, 
1861,  to  June,    1862. 


By  WILLIAM  J.  CROSSLEY. 

[Late  Sergeant  Company  C,  Second  Rhode  Island  Infantry 
Volunteers.] 


Library  of    . 
The  University  of  North  Carolina 


COLLECTION  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINIANA 


ENDOWED  BY 

JOHN  SPRUNT  HILL 

of  the  Class  of  1889 


0?a7f  JL-C95" 


00032734266 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


1  HiXJf 


i 


PERSONAL  NARRATIVES 


OF   EVENTS   IN   THE 


WAROFTHE  REBELLION: 

BEING  PAPERS  READ  BEFORE  THE 

RHODE  ISLAND  SOLDIERS  AND  SAILORS 
HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


Sixth   Series.  — No.  4. 


i  &i    .!         V*i 


PROVIDENCE  : 

PUBLISHED   BY  THE    SOCIETY, 

1903. 


SNOW   &    FARNHAM,    PRINTERS. 


*\ 


o 

(r 


EXTRACTS 

From   my    Diary,  and    From  my 
Experiences 

WHILE  BOARDING  WITH   JEFFERSON   DAVIS, 
IN  THREE  OF  HIS   NOTORIOUS  HOTELS, 

In  Richmond,  Va.,  Tuscaloosa,  Ala.,  and  Salisbury,  N.  C, 
From  July,  1861,  to  June,  1862. 


BY 

WILLIAM  J.   CROSSLEY, 

[Late  Sergeant  Company  C,  Second  Rhode  Island  Infantry 
Volunteers.] 


PROVIDENCE : 

PUBLISHED   BY   THE    SOCIETY. 
1903. 


[Edition  limited  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  copies.] 


EXTRACTS  FROM  MY  DIARY. 


[Read  before  the  Society  October  15,  1901.] 


Comrades  and  Friexds  : 

When  I  promised  you  this  paper  some  months 
ago  I  did  not  realize  what  a  blundering  mistake  I 
was  making,  but  I  did  soon  after,  when  I  began  to 
look  over  the  few  pages  of  a  wretchedly  kept  diary, 
and  to  think  I  had  nothing  but  a  badly  faded  mem- 
ory to  fill  the  blank  spaces;  and  then  to  try  to 
squeeze  a  life  of  over  three  hundred  days  into  about 
sixty  minutes,  and  make  those  minutes  at  all  in- 
teresting to  you  I  was  afraid  was  beyond  my  ability. 
Besides,  it  occurred  to  me  that  many  of  you  had 
read  books  or  heard  papers  read  on  this  subject, 
written  by  scholars,  when  memory  and  the  inci- 
dents of  that  life  were  fresh  with  them,  and  new, 


6  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY    DIARY, 

strange  and  interesting  to  you,  and  before  such 
books  and  papers  had  become  repeatedly  monoto- 
nous. For  these  and  similar  reasons  I  have  tried 
to  be  as  brief  as  the  subject  would  allow,  and  to 
avoid  putting  overmuch  stress  on  the  serious  or 
doleful  part  of  our  confinement,  that  you  already 
may  have  been  bored  with.  So  if  you  find  this 
effort  of  mine  dry  and  dull  try  to  be  thankful  it  is 
no  worse,  and  that  you  will  not  be  obliged  to  listen 
to  it  again,  and  if  you  find  at  its  close  that  you  do 
not  know  any  more  than  you  know  now  be  chari- 
table, and  try  to  think  it  is  from  no  fault  of  the 
writer. 

Some  of  you  may  wonder  why,  as  I  intimated 
just  now,  the  diary  was  wretchedly  kept,  when  we 
had  so  much  spare  time.  Simply  from  the  inabil- 
ity to  own,  keep  or  borrow  a  lead  pencil.  Would 
you  believe  such  a  trifle  could  become  such  a  lux- 
ury in  the  capital  of  the  Old  Dominion?  Now  to 
those  of  you  who  are  not  familiar  with  my  military 
record  previous  to  the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  I  would 
say,  I  enlisted  in  Providence  in  May  and  was  sworn 
into  the  United   States   service  June  5,  1861,  for 


AND    FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  I 

three  years,  as  a  member  of  Company  C  ("The 
Lambs")  Second  Ehode  Island  Volunteers.  From 
that  date  we  camped  and  drilled  on  Dexter  Train- 
ing Ground  until  June  19th,  when  we  sailed  from 
Pox  Point  for  New  York,  then  by  train  to  Harris- 
burg,  Baltimore  and  Washington,  where  we  ar- 
rived on  the  22d,  and  went  into  camp  just  out  and 
north  of  the  city,  and  adjoining  the  First  Rhode 
Island,  at  "Camp  Sprague."  Our  camp  was  named 
"Clark,"  after  the  present  venerable  bishop  of  this 
diocese.  Here  we  drilled  daily  until  July  16th, 
when  we  left  for  old  Virginia,  and  I,  it  seems  for 
Richmond. 

By  the  way,  the  able  and  unquenchable  executive 
of  our  State  Prison,  General  Viall,  was  then  my 
captain,  and  the  Hon.  Edward  Stanley  one  of  the 
assessors  of  the  town  of  Cranston  was  my  first  lieu- 
tenant. 

To  resume,  July  17th,  we  arrived  at  Fairfax, 
where  some  of  the  smart  ones  made  themselves  con- 
spicuous in  a  few  of  the  houses  evacuated  by  the 
Confederates,  by  smashing  portraits,  pianos,  mir- 
rors and  other  furniture,  without  cause  or  provoca- 


8  EXTRACTS   FROM   MY   DIARY, 

tion.  Thursday,  18th,  bought  a  hoecake  and  went  a 
mile  to  milk  a  cow,  with  and  from  which  I  had  a 
rare  supper.  The  boys  are  shooting  pigs  and  hens 
to  kill.  At  7  p.  m.  we  marched  away  three  or  four 
miles  to  a  place  we  named  "Brush  Camp,"  where 
four  men  came  to  us  from  the  fight  we  had  heard 
two  of  three  miles  beyond,  at  a  place  called  Centre- 
ville.  They  were  gunless  and  hatless,  and  two  of 
them  were  wounded.  On  the  19th,  with  rails  and 
brush,  we  made  a  shelter  from  the  fierce  sun.  Fresh 
meat  was  issued  to-day ;  I  made  a  soup,  first  in  the 
campaign;  rather  but  not  awful  salt, — for  a  fresh- 
made  soup.  Dress  parade  tonight.  Sent  a  letter 
Home.  Have  to  begin  Home  now  with  a  capital 
"H"  since  we  have  seen  rebel-made  blood. 

Sunday.  July  21st.  This  is  the  day  we  celebrate 
the  occasion  of  this  melodrama.  Left  camp  about 
2  a.  m.,  arrived  at  Bull  Run  about  9  a.  m.  Here  the 
Confederacy  received  us  with  open  arms  and  re- 
freshments galore.  We  had  barely  time  to  ex- 
change the  compliments  of  the  season  with  them, 
when  one  of  the  Johnnies  with  much  previousness 
passed  me  a  pepperment  drop  in  the  shape  of  a  bul- 


AND    FROM    MY    EXPERIENCES.  9 

let  that  seemed  to  be  stuffed  with  cayenne.  Out  of 
courtesy,  of  course,  I  returned  a  similar  favor,  with 
but  little  satisfaction  however,  for  he  was  so  com- 
pletely hidden  down  in  the  grainfield  that  his  col- 
ors and  the  smoke  from  his  guns  were  all  we  had 
for  a  target.  Well,  the  cayenne  was  getting 
warmer,  and  the  blood  was  getting  out  of  my  eyes 
into  my  trousers'  leg,  so  I  was  taken  to  the  rear, 
and  down  to  where  Surgeons  Wheaton  and  Harris 
were  dressing  wounds,  and  had  mine  dressed;  and, 
as  the  rebs  began  just  then  dropping  shot  and  shell 
so  near  to  us  as  to  be  taking  limbs  from  the  trees 
over  our  heads  the  doctors  ordered  that  the 
wounded  be  moved  away.  I  was  put  in  a  blanket 
and  taken  to  another  part  of  the  woods  and  left. 
Soon  after,  an  old  friend  of  mine,  Tom  Clark,  a 
member  of  the  band,  came  along,  and,  after  a  chat, 
gave  me  some  whiskey,  from  the  effects  of  which, 
with  fatigue,  loss  of  blood  and  sleep,  I  was  soon 
dozing,  notwithstanding  the  roar  of  fierce  and  mur- 
derous battle  going  on  just  over  the  hill.  When  I 
awoke  a  tentmate  of  mine  was  standing  over  and 
telling  me  we  were  beaten  and  on  the  run.  I  wanted 


10  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

to  tell  him  what  Pat  told  the  Queen  of  Ireland, 
Mrs.  Keller,  but  after  looking  into  his  ghostly, 
though  dirty  face,  I  said  nothing,  but  with  his  help 
and  a  small  tree  tried  to  get  up.  That  was  a  fail- 
ure, so  I  gave  him  my  watch,  said  good-bye  to  him, 
and  he  left.  Up  to  date  it  was  also  good-bye  to  the 
watch.  Well,  after  this  little  episode,  I  turned 
over,  and,  on  my  hands  and  one  knee,  crawled  down 
to  the  road,  four  or  five  hundred  yards  away,  and 
tried  to  get  taken  in,  or  on  an  ambulance,  but  they 
were  all  full  (though  not  the  kind  of  full  you  are 
thinking  about).  Then  1  crawled  up  to  a  rail  fence 
close  by  a  log  cabin,  and  soon  the  rebs  came  along, 
took  account  of  stock,  i.  e.,  our  name,  regiment  and 
company,  and  placed  a  guard  over  us.  Being  nat- 
urally of  a  slender  disposition  (I  weighed  one  hun- 
dred and  eleven  pounds  just  before  leaving  Wash- 
ington) and  from  the  fracas  of  the  last  twelve 
hours,  was,  perhaps,  looking  a  little  more  peaked 
than  usual,  so  when  one  of  the  rebel  officers  asked 
me  how  old  I  was,  and  I  told  him  twenty-one, 
maybe  he  was  not  so  much  to  blame  for  smiling  and 
swearing,  "He  reckoned  I  had  got  my  lesson  nearly 


AND   PEOM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  11 

perfect."  I  didn't  know  then  what  he  meant,  but 
it  seems  they  had  heard  we  were  enlisting  boys, 
and  I  suppose  he  thought,  in  my  case  at  least,  the 
facts  were  before  him. 

Monday,  July  22d.  Well,  here  I  am,  a  prisoner 
of  war,  a  lamb  surrounded  by  wolves,  just  because 
I  obeyed  orders,  went  into  a  fight,  and,  by  Queens- 
bury  rules,  was  punctured  below  the  belt.  So 
much  for  trying  to  be  good.  And  just  here  I  would 
like  to  add  a  few  lines  pertaining  to  that  (to  us, 
then)  strange  expression,  "Prisoner  of  war."  From 
the  day  of  my  enlistment  to  the  morning  of  this 
notorious  battle  I  had  never  heard  the  word  men- 
tioned, nor  had  I  even  thought  of  it.  I  had  been 
told  before  leaving  Providence  that  I  would  be 
shot,  starved  or  drilled  to  death,  that  with  a  four- 
teen-pound musket,  forty  rounds  of  cartridge,  a 
knapsack  of  indispensables,  a  canteen  of, — of  fluid, 
a  haversack  of  hard-tack,  a  blanket  and  half  a  tent 
I  would  be  marched  to  death  under  the  fierce  rays 
of  a  broiling  sun,  with  a  mule's  burden  of  earth — 
in  the  shape  of  dust — in  my  hair,  eyes,  and  ears, 
up  my  nose  and  down  the  back  of  my  neck,  or,  wad- 


12  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

ing  through  miles  of  mud  so  thick  that  I  must  go 
barefoot  or  leave  my  shoes.  That  I  would  return 
home — if  at  all — with  but  one  leg,  one  arm,  one  eye, 
or  one  nose,  and  with  but  very  little  of  the  previous 
large  head;  but  with  all  this  gabble  about  war  and 
its  alluring  entertainments  not  a  solitary  word 
about  "Prisoner  of  war."  So  you  see,  it  was  not 
merely  a  surprise  to  us,  a  little  something  just  out 
of  the  ordinary,  but  it  was  a  shock,  and  not  an 
every  day  feeble  and  sickly  shock  either,  but  a  vig- 
orous paralyzing  and  spine-chilling  shock,  that  we 
couldn't  shake  off  for  days  or  weeks  after  we  were 
captured.     But  to  continue. 

It  rained  all  of  last  night;  I  got  thoroughly 
soaked.  This  morning  the  rebs  made  our  able  ones 
go  out  on  the  battlefield  and  get  rubber  blankets,  put 
them  over  rails  and  make  a  shelter  for  us  in  the  j'ard 
of  the  cabin.  The  cabin  is  full  of  wounded  and  dying, 
and  I  don't  know  how  many  are  in  the  yard.  When 
the  surgeon  was  dressing  my  wound  to-day,  we 
found  the  bullet  inside  the  drawers  where  they  were 
tied  around  my  ankle.  Oh,  but  wasn't  I  lucky; 
there  was  but  one  puncture  and  that  one  below  wind 


AND    FROM   MT   EXPERIENCES.  13 

and  vitals.  That's  where  the  infantry  lap  over  the 
navy,  you  see,  Mr.  Shell-back. 

July  23d.  Colonel  Slocuni  died  at  one  o'clock 
this  morning.  Penno,  of  the  First,  had  his 
leg  cut  off.  The  major  had  both  of  his  taken  off. 
We  had  some  porridge  made  from  meal  the  men 
brought  in  from  the  woods. 

July  24th.  Colonel  Slocum  was  buried  this  morn- 
ing at  the  lower  end  of  the  garden.  Major  Ballou's 
and  Penno's  legs  in  same  place.  The  Major  is  get- 
ting better;  so  am  I.  As  the  men  were  going  past 
me  here  with  the  Colonel's  body,  I  was  allowed  to 
cut  a  button  from  his  blouse  (I  have  it  yet),  at  the 
same  time  they  found  another  bullet  wound  in  one 
of  his  ankles. 

July  26th.  Had  ham  and  bread  for  dinner  right 
from  the  field,  and  gruel  for  supper.  T.  O.  H.  Carpen- 
ter, another  of  my  friends,  and  of  my  company,  died 
to-day,  up  at  the  church. 

July  27th.  No  bread  to-day,  only  gruel.  McCann, 
of  Newport,  died. 

July  28th.  Major  Ballou  died  this  p.  m. 
Gruel  for  supper,  with  a  fierce  tempest. 


14  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

July  29th.  The  major  was  buried  beside  the  col- 
onel at  dark. 

July  31st.  Have  had  an  elegant  headache  the 
past  two  days;  to-day  it's  singing.  Started 
for  Manassas  Junction  about  noon,  in  ammunition 
wagons,  and  with  those  infernal  drivers  hunting 
around  for  rocks  and  stumps  to  drive  over;  it  did 
seem  as  if  the  proprietors  of  the  bullet  holes  and 
stumps  in  the  wagons  were  getting  "on  to  Rich- 
mond" with  a  vengeance.  At  the  Junction  we  were 
put  into  freight  cars  and  started  at  dark  for  Rich- 
mond. 

August  1st.  When  we  arrived  at  Gordonville 
this  morning,  the  most  of  us  hoped  to  be  delivered 
from  another  such  night,  for  the  way  that  engineer 
twitched  and  thumped  those  cars  all  night  long 
would  have  made  Jeff  Davis  &  Co.  smile,  if  they 
could  have  heard  the  cursing  and  groans  of  the  tor- 
tured and  dying  in  those  cars.  This  afternoon 
some  are  scraping  the  maggots  from  their  rotten 
limbs  and  wounds,  for  the  heat  has  been  sweltering 
all  day,  and  the  stench  almost  unbearable,  as  you 
know,  there  is  no  ventilation  in  the  ends  of  a  bos 


AND    FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  15 

freight  car;  but  the  most  of  us  lived  through  it,  and 
finally  arrived  at  Richmond,  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  from  Manassas,  at  the  speed  of  nearly  seven 
miles  an  hour.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  Uncle  Sam 
treating  a  train  load  of  gasping  and  dying  strang- 
ers quite  so  beastly  and  leisurely  as  that?  As  we 
were  being  unloaded  from  the  cars  to  wagons  a  nice 
looking  old  gentleman  with  a  white  necktie,  stand- 
ing nearby,  said  to  me,  "How  old  are  you,  my  little 
man?"  I  told  him  twenty-one,  but  from  his  insinu- 
ating that  I  must  be  a  near  relative  of  Ananias,  I 
did  not  pretend  to  be  over  seventeen  after  that  while 
in  the  Confederacy.  From  the  cars  we  were  taken 
to  a  tobacco  factory,  near  the  lower  end  of  the  city, 
and  on  the  left  bank  of  the  James  River,  after- 
wards known  as  the  famous  "Libby."  We  were 
dumped  on  the  first  floor,  among  the  tobacco  presses 
for  the  night,  and  next  morning  taken  upstairs, 
and,  "bless  my  stars,"  put  on  cots,  and  given  bread 
and  coffee  for  breakfast.  What  was  the  coffee  made 
of  do  you  ask?  I  don't  know,  and,  as  you  didn't 
have  it  to  drink  it  need  not  concern  you;  and  we 
had  soup  for  dinner,  and  it's  none  of  your  affairs 


16  EXTRACTS    FROM    MY    DIARY, 

what  that  was  made  of  either.  And  now  we  are  al- 
lowed to  send  letters  home,  but  have  to  be  very 
careful  as  to  quality  and  quantity,  for  Mr.  Beb  has 
the  first  perusal  and  will  throw  them  in  the  waste 
basket  if  a  sentence  or  even  a  word  is  not  to  his  lik- 
ing. I  tell  you  if  we  needed  a  capital  "H"  for 
home,  when  at  Brush  Camp,  the  entire  word  should 
be  written  in  capitals  here,  for  there  we  were  sur- 
rounded by  friends,  not  an  enemy  in  sight,  while 
here  we  are  surrounded  by  thousands  of  enemies  and 
bayonets  and  not  a  solitary  friend  within  miles. 
While  writing  this  paper  I  have  tried  to  think  of 
some  parallel  or  similar  case  to  that  of  ours,  that  I 
might  give  you  an  idea  in  a  more  condensed  and 
comprehensive  form  what  that  life  was.  but  I  can 
think  of  none.  Possibly  some  of  you  may  think 
that  board  and  lodgings  at  "Viall's  Inn"  for  a  few 
months  might  be  comparable.  I  don't  think  so; 
but  as  we  are  cramped  for  time  1  will  not  argue 
the  matter  with  you,  but  drop  it  after  a  single  com- 
parison. If  you  were  to  be  sent  to  General  Viall's 
you  would  be  told  before  leaving  the  Court  House 
how  long  you  were  to  stay.     There  is  where  much 


AND    FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  17 

of  the  agony,  the  wear  and  tear  came  to  us,  that 
everlasting  longing,  yearning  and  suspense. 

When  settled  down  to  our  daily  routine,  I  find 
on  the  cot  beside  mine  a  little  Belgian  Dutchman, 
about  thirty-five  years  old,  with  a  head  round  as 
a  pumpkin,  eyes  that  would  snap  like  stars  in  Jan- 
uary, and  a  moustache  that  puts  his  nose  and  mouth 
nearly  out  of  sight.  He  was  seldom  murmuring, 
but  flush  with  sarcasm.  His  name  was  Anthony 
Welder,  and  he  belonged  to  the  Thirty-Eighth  New 
York.  He  was  wounded  the  same  as  I,  just  above 
the  knee,  so  he  could  not  walk,  but  he  did  not  lack 
for  friends  and  fellow  countrymen  to  call  on  him 
and  help  use  up  many  weary  hours  with  their  na- 
tional and  lively  game  of  "Sixty-Six."  I  wish  you 
could  have  seen  them  play  it.  I  was  a  real  nice  boy 
at  that  time  and  didn't  know  even  the  name  of  a- 
card,  but  seeing  them  getting  so  much  fun  out  of  it 
I  asked  Anthony  one  day  to  show  me  how  to  play, 
but  with  a  very  decided  No,  he  said,  "I  tell  you ;  I 
show  you  how  to  play,  and  you  play  awhile  for  fun, 
then  you  play  for  a  little  money,  you  win,  then  you 
play  for  a  pile,  and  you  win,  then  you  play  for  a  big 


18  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

pile,  and  you  lose  him  all,  then  you  say,  'Tarn  that 
Tutchman,  I  wish  the  tevil  had  him  before  he  show 
me  how  to  play  cards.' "  But  there  wasn't  much 
peace  for  Dutchie  until  I  knew  how  to  play  Sixty- 
Six."  And  just  here  is  another  illustration  of  the 
havoc  my  evaporated  memory  has  made  with  some 
of  the  tidbits  of  those  days,  that  I  would  occasion- 
ally like  to  recall ;  for  to-day  I  know  no  more  about 
that  game  of  "Sixty-Six"  than  the  Chaplain  of  the 
Dexter  Asylum. 

August  4th.  A  First  regiment  man  died,  and  on 
the  Gth  Esek  Smith,  also  three  other  Rhode  Island 
men  died.  And  her  I  should  say  I  make  no  mention 
of  the  dozens  and  scores  belonging  to  other  states 
and  regiments  that  are  carried  out  daily.  One  day 
as  a  body  was  being  taken  out  past  us  I  said  to 
Welder,  "There  goes  another  poor  fellow  that's  had 
to  give  up  the  ghost,"  and  Welder  says,  "Well,  that 
is  the  last  thing  what  he  could  do." 

August  7th.  Had  services  this  p.  m.  by  an  Epis- 
copal clergyman. 

August  10th.     Grub  very    scarce. .  Cobb    of  the 


AND    FROM    MY   EXPERIENCES.  19 

Second  died,  and  H.  L.  Jacques,  of  Company  E, 
from  Wakefield,  bled  to  death  this  evening. 

August  13th.  Johnnie  is  whitewashing  the  walls. 
It  makes  the  dirty  red  bricks  look  a  little  more  cheer- 
ful. 

August  21st.  To-day  we  are  a  month  away  from 
Bull  Run,  and  a  month  nearer  home. 

August  26th.  Light  breakfast,  no  dinner  and 
small  supper.  The  front  of  my  stomach  and  my 
spinal  column  seem  to  be  about  three-quarters  of  an 
inch  apart  now. 

September  5th.  My  birthday.  The  anniversary 
of  my  beginning  to  see  things  in  a  different  light. 
Have  cut  several  eye  teeth  in  the  past  six  weeks. 

September  6th.  Moved  down  stairs,  with  a  beau- 
tiful headache,  a  sore  throat,  and  my  first  ague  chill. 

Since  I  began  writing  this  paper  I  have  had  an- 
other, and  if  those  two  were  the  only  ones  I  had 
ever  had,  you  might  not  have  been  afflicted  with 
this  mess  of  pottage  this  evening. 

September  21st.  And  now  it  is  two  months  since 
we  left  Father  Abraham  on  the  wild  plains  of 
Manassas.     Doctor  Harris  and  his  assistants  left 


20  EXTBACTS   FKOM   MY   DIABY, 

for  home  to-day.  Perhaps  a  little  explanation 
should  attend  that  last  sentence.  It  seems  Colonel 
Jones  of  the  Fourth  Alabama,  was  seriously 
wounded  and  taken  prisoner  at  Bull  Run,  and  was 
being  attended  by  Dr.  Harris  and  assistants,  when 
the  Federal  retreat  began.  The  colonel's  attendants 
were  going  to  leave  him,  of  course,  as  they  didn't 
care  to  be  scooped,  but  he  pleaded  with  them  to 
stay  with  him  until  he  should  get  to  Richmond, 
and  he  would  then  and  there  have  them  released. 
So  they  stayed,  but  he  was,  as  you  may  know  by 
this  date,  a  long  while  getting  their  release. 

September  25th.  Chris.  Rodman,  of  Peacedale, 
died  of  typhoid  fever. 

Sunday,  October  6th.  All  with  stumps  sent  home 
to-day.  I,  with  no  stump,  am  permitted  to  walk 
across  the  street,  and  into  another  tobacco  factory. 
This  one  is  four  stories  high,  beside  a  loft,  where  are 
stored  tons  of  tobacco.  I  was  sent  to  the  fourth 
floor.  And  now,  perhaps,  that  we  have  moved  into 
new  quarters,  the  program  for  a  single  day,  in  this 
den  of  ours,  giving  you  an  idea  of  how  we  used  up 
some  of  the  anxious  hours  and  weeks,  would  be  more 


AND    FROM    MY    EXPERIENCES.  21 

edifying  and  interesting  than  a  little  dab  of  this 
and  that,  here  and  there. 

So,  to  begin  with,  if  you  please,  picture  to  your- 
self this  slumber  chamber  of  ours,  this  parlor,  re- 
ception and  dining  room,  sitting  and  standing  room, 
library  and  smoking  room,  bath  room  and  kitchen. 
That  bath  must  be  a  joke,  a  dry  one,  too,  for  I  never 
knew  or  heard  of  Yank  having  a.  bath  with  Jeff. 
Of  course  they  were  in  hot  water  frequently,  but 
then  they  didn't  have  on  their  bathing  suits,  only 
but  just  fighting  togs.  Well,  this  room  was  about 
35  x  80  with  a  chimney,  a  sink  and  James  River 
water,  and  directly  after  a  shower  the  water  was 
a'most  thick  enough  for  plastering.  The  furniture 
was  one  solitary  pine  table,  the  chairs  were  out  of 
sight.  Comrade  Chenery  had  not  yet  sent  in  his 
card.  Say,  did  you  ever  realize  what  a  droll-look- 
ing place  a  hotel  would  be,  filled  with  guests,  but 
not  a  chair  in  it?  Or  did  you  ever  think  what  it 
meant  to  sit  on  the  floor,  not  for  a  day,  or  a  week, 
but  for  months?  Sometime,  when  you  have  been 
real  good  and  wish  to  repent,  try  it  for  a  few  weeks, 
just  before  Easter. 


22  EXTRACTS   FROM    MY   DIARY, 

But  to  resume.  The  men — about  one  hundred — 
at  night,  lie  with  their  heads  to  the  wall,  away 
around  the  room,  with  another  double  column, 
heads  together,  up  and  down  the  middle  of  the 
room.  Some  may  have  a  block  for  a  pillow,  others 
a  shoe,  but  seven-eighths  of  them  have  nothing  be- 
tween their  heads  and  the  floor,  and  the  rest  of  the 
poor  body  is  served  in  the  same  way.  The  cover- 
ing, too,  is  as  scant  as  the  bedding,  except  for  a 
few,  who  may  have  saved  a  blanket  from  the  battle- 
field, and  even  they  must  pay  for  their  comfort  by 
sleeping  with  one  eye  open,  or  they  cannot  see  their 
blanket  next  morning,  with  two  eyes  open,  not- 
withstanding, most  pf  us  were  familiar  with  num- 
ber eight  of  the  decalogue.  Soon  after  daylight 
all  but  the  filthy  ones  are  sitting  up,  all  around  the 
room,  like  so  many  athletes,  stripped  for  the  fray, 
with  blood  in  their  eyes  and  on  their  thumbnails, 
slaying  the  descendants  of  Pharaoh's  pets  with 
much  zeal,  but  with  little  encouragement;  for  poor 
Yank  is  beaten  now  worse  than  at  Bull  Run;  he  is 
outnumbered  here  one  thousand  to  one,  and  worst 
of  all,  has  no  ammunition,  i.  e.,  hot  water,  and  the 


AND    FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  23 

Richmond  louse  has  no  more  fear  of  cold  water  than 
the  proverbial  milkman.  But  wasn't  Stumps  lucky 
in  being  sent  away  before  getting  to  this  place  of 
torment,  for  what  would  the  poor  fellows  have  done 
while  we  were  scratching,  or  rather,  digging? 
Stumps  was  the  fellow  without  hand  or  feet  and 
how  could  he  scratch  without  them?  Next  of  note 
after  the  hunt,  is  the  appearance  of  his  mightiness, 
the  notorious  Sergeant  Wirz,  with  pistol  in  hand, 
his  guard  with  their  guns  by  his  side,  to  call  the 
roll.  In  very  good  Dutch,  he  tells  us  to  "Fall  in, 
and  pe  tarn  quick  about  it,  too,"  but  his  bluster 
does  not  seem  to  frighten  the  boys  much,  and  while 
we  are  getting  into  line  the  careless  ones  make  it 
merry  for  Dutchie;  from  the  four  corners  of  the 
room  in  ventriloquistic  tones  they  give  him  his 
pedigree,  telling  him  he  is  the  son  of  a  good  dog  or 
of  an  old  smooth  bore;  they  send  him  on  long  jour- 
neys to — to — Halifax,  or  maybe  to  Jericho;  they 
call  him  sweet  and  spicy  names,  and  one  curious 
cherub  from  the  rear  rank  wants  to  know  why  he 
talks  Irish.  That  staggers  him,  for  Dutchie  is  not 
fond  of  the  Irish,  and  if  he  dared  would  skin  alive 


24  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

every  "Mac"  on  the  roll.  So  this  query  is  the  cli- 
max; up  comes  the  pistol,  he  glares  over  it  with  fire 
in  his  eyes  and  speech,  and  gives  the  last  speaker 
just  two  minutes  to  step  two  paces  to  the  front. 
The  cherub  is,  perhaps,  a  Freshman  from  Yale,  and 
does  not  understand  the  Eotterdam  language,  so 
he  does  not  take  the  two  paces;  then  there  is  not 
even  a  smile  for  the  next  two  minutes,  then  the  gun 
begins  to  droop,  the  time  is  up,  Dutchie  has  cooled 
off.  and  the  roll  is  called.  You  see  he  had  a  similar 
experience  each  morning  on  the  three  floors  below, 
and  doubtless  those  people  down  there  would  worry 
him  to  the  verge  of  nervousness.  But  I  wish  you 
could  have  heard  him  call  that  roll  just  once;  and 
often  those  scamps  would  get  him  so  badly  twisted 
he  would  have  to  close  his  book  and  count  us,  and 
if  it  was  music  to  hear  him  call  the  roll  'twas  equal 
to  a  band  to  hear  his  'ine,  swi,  thri,  fear,  finf  and  so 
on  down  the  line.  Soon  after  roll  call  came  the 
regular  9  o'clock  Confederate  feast.  A  four-ounce 
piece  of  bread  with  three  ounces  of  boiled  rib,  then 
go  to  the  tap  and  wash  it  down  with  a  dose  of  the 
James  River.     With  the  three  courses   (bread,  rib 


AND    FROM    MY    EXPERIENCES.  25 

and  water) ,  we  have  lost  nearly  four  precious  min- 
utes, for  you  must  not  think  we  are  a  set  of  drones 
in  this  hive,  and  have  lots  of  time  to  squander  over 
a  little  mess  of  bread  and  bone,  "Nowt  of  sort." 

Perhaps  it  would  have  been  more  in  order  to  have 
told  you,  before  gormandizing,  how  this  feast  was 
served.  The  fifty  eight-ounce  loaves  of  bread,  and 
maybe  twenty  pounds  of  meat,  were  brought  in  by 
darkies  and  put  on  our  solitary  table.  Then  our 
own  selected  and  angelic  commissary  cut  the  loaves 
in  two,  placed  them  on  the  table  and  put  on  each 
piece  of  bread  three  ounces,  or  less,  of  choice  boiled 
rib;  the  men  then  formed  in  line,  walked  past  the 
table  and  each  took  a  ration.  Now,  after  the  feast 
comes  the  daily  round  of  exercise.  Over  in  yonder 
corner  a  bondholder,  having  invested  in  a  Richmond 
Examiner  or  Dispatch  (ten  cents),  is  holding  the 
attention  of  a  score  or  more  with  an  extended  ac- 
count of  the  last  Confederate  victory.  Always  a 
victory,  of  course,  for  when  Johnnie  was  beaten, 
not  even  a  bondholder  could  buy  one  of  his  papers. 
That  group  over  there  are  watching  a  pair  of  jack- 
als, who  are  having  a  quiet  game  of  pitch  for  the 


26  EXTRACTS    FROM    MY   DIARY, 

criist  and  the  bone  that  lies  on  the  floor  between 
them,  and  all  about  the  room  you  may  see  pairs 
and  fours,  busy  at  all  the  variety  of  games  with 
cards,  and  a  generous  sprinkling  of  more  studious 
and  sedate  ones  at  chess,  checkers,  and  dominoes, 
from  morn  'till  twilight.  The  squad  over  there  by 
the  grand  stairway  are  arguing  about  the  rumors 
of  our  being  released,  or  sent  south,  or  out  on  the 
Confederate  fortifications  with  the  chain  gang. 
Then  some  loafer  or  rascal  would  come  from  some- 
where down  stairs  and  sing  out,  "Hurrah,  fellows, 
going  home  next  week!"  In  our  early  prison  days 
such  a  toot  would  set  the  swarm  to  buzzing,  but 
soon  became  shopworn.  Then  another  party,  with 
pickets  posted  away  down  the  stairs  (that  they 
be  not  surprised  by  Mr.  Wirz  and  his  gang)  are 
going  aloft  for  tobacco  to  take  down  stairs  to  be 
pressed,  for  they  alone  on  the  lower  floor  have 
the  presses,  while  we  on  the  upper,  command  the 
tobacco  loft.  So  Ave  lend  them  our  tobacco  for  the 
use  of  their  presses.  How  the  fellows  fared  be- 
tween the  upper  and  lower  millstones  I  don't  re- 
member, but  you  can  rest  assured  they  didn't  go 


AND   FROM    MY   EXPERIENCES.  27 

without  their  smoke.  Oh,  what  a  comfort  that 
was  for  Yank  in  prisondom,  that  he  could  smother 
so  many  cravings  for  home  and  loved  ones;  that  he 
could  stifle  so  many  aches  and  pains,  so  much  tor- 
ture and  misery  from  dawn  to  dark  with  beautiful 
time-killing  smoke,  nor  having  to  take  one  thought 
of  where  the  next  was  coming  from;  for  didn't  we 
have  tobacco  to  burn?  A  couple  of  years  after- 
wards, I  used  to  think  frequently  of  the  poor  fel- 
lows at  Andersonville,  and  how  much  they  would 
have  enjoyed  such  a  privilege. 

The  really  industrious  ones  you  see  about  the 
room  are  the  artists,  the  Boney-parts,  who,  with 
their  knife,  file,  and  wax,  patience  and  perserver- 
ance,  take  the  bones  from  their  meat  and  make  such 
artistic  chessmen,  checkers,  dominoes,  rings,  shields, 
badges,  etc.,  that  even  the  women  of  the  Confed- 
eracy come  in  to  see  and  buy. 

Then  there  is  the  drill  squad,  having  sword  and 
bayonet  exercise,  while  sailor-Jack  is  prodding  a 
ship,  or  the  girl  be  left  behind  him,  into  the  breast 
of  his  shipmate.  The  chap  yonder  with  the  book 
and  restful  visage,  is  having  a  royal  treat,  which 


28  EXTRACTS   FROM    MY    DIARY, 

many  of  us  anticipate  from  the  same  source.  The 
bachelor-appearing  fellow  beside  him,  you  see,  has 
a  needle  and  thread,  and  may  be  trying  to  bridle  a 
button  or  take  a  piece  from  the  corner  of  his 
blanket,  to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the  resting  place  of  his 
trousers ;  and  I  tell  you  it  was  quite  a  task  to  keep 
that  part  of  our  uniform  fit  for  Sunday  morning 
inspection. 

Now  the  barber  could  be  the  busiest  one  in  the 
hive,  but  he  doesn't  like  to  work  for  nothing,  and 
very  few  of  us  are  flush,  but  he  must  cut  hair,  for 
we  have  no  combs  and  as  I  have  told  you  just  now 
neither  have  we  any  hot  water.  The  innocent  look- 
ing boy  over  there,  Slim  Bailey,  with  his  six  feet 
five,  curled  up  in  smoke,  is  the  rascal  who  will  bor- 
row of  you  a  handful  of  Egyptian  vermin,  trot  down 
stairs  to  the  guard  at  the  door,  and  deliberately 
pour  them  down  the  back  of  his  neck,  thinking  per- 
haps, that  it  is  only  proper  to  render  unto  Caesar 
the  things  that  do  not  belong  to  us.  About  12  m., 
daily,  a  very  select  few  would  have  an  interlude  in 
the  shape  of  hasty  pudding,  griddle  cakes  or  a  stew. 
These  few  were  mostlv  from  the  Seventy-first  New 


AND    FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  29 

York,  the  Brooklyn  Zoos,  and  First  Rhode  Island 
Infantry.  They  were  of  the  elite,  the  upper  crust, 
blue  bloods,  they  had  money,  and  with  it  they  would 
get  the  guard  to  bring  them  flour,  rice,  sugar,  tea, 
vegetables,  etc.  Of  course  the  flour  and  vegetables 
must  be  cooked,  but  where  was  the  stove?  The 
Confederacy  had  no  stoves  for  Yanks.  Well,  in 
that  loft  I  spoke  of,  besides  the  hogsheads,  barrels, 
boxes  and  caddies  of  tobacco,  there  were  piles  of 
sheet-tin,  in  squares  about  nine  inches  by  twelve. 
So  Yank  took  some  of  them  down  stairs,  dug  a  hole 
in  the  chimney,  laid  the  bricks  on  the  floor  with  the 
sheets  of  tin  over  them,  and  on  top  of  these  placed 
rows  of  bricks  to  connect  with  the  hole  in  the  chim- 
ney, and  covered  the  last  with  more  sheets  on  which 
to  put  the  cooking  furniture,  and  that  was  the  style 
and  make  of  the  Model  Grand,  the  Richmond  Range 
of  1861.  Years  after  Comrade  Spicer  cabbaged  the 
entire  plant.  Did  you  notice  I  mentioned  cooking 
furniture?  Well,  you  see  these  select  few  must  have 
dishes  to  cook  in,  and  so  they  did,  by  taking  more 
of  those  sheets  of  tin  and  turning  up  the  sides  and 
ends  so  nicely  that  they  were  liquid  tight,  and  that 


30  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

too,  without  solder.  Then  these  shoddy  autocrats 
must  have  fuel,  so  they  go  aloft  once  more  and  any- 
thing in  the  shape  of  staves,  boards  and  boxes  that 
is  breakable  is  utilized.  Oh,  but  were  not  those 
midday  doses  torture  for  the  eyes  and  nostrils  of 
the  poor  fellows  who  had  no  money,  meal  or  pota- 
toes; no  nothing  but  an  appetite  fit  for  a  shark, 
and  a  desire  to  turn  our  noses  over  or  plug  up  the 
blow  holes. 

Now  comes  4  o'clock,  and  up  come  the  darkies 
again  with  piles  of  bread  and  buckets  of  broth. 
This  broth  is  the  fluid  in  which  the  ribs  were  boiled, 
and  to  each  gill  of  the  same  has  been  added  one 
bean,  and  to  each  Yank  is  given,  daily,  one  standard 
gill  of  this  Confederate  swill.  Sometimes  it  was 
very  fresh,  and  then  again  it  would  be  so  odorous 
you  would  swear  it  never  was  fresh.  After  this 
threat  out  come  the  pipes,  "only  but  just  pipes," 
take  notice,  nearly  a  hundred  well  colored,  loyal 
dudeens,  and  not  a  two  for  or  arbitrator,  or  any 
other  sort  of  a  traitor  in  sight.  And  now  this  final 
soothing,  nerve-killing,  quiet  smoke,  and  the  day  is 
done. 


AND   FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  31 

October  25th.  Had  trial  of  a  fellow  for  stealing 
meal. 

Sunday,  November  3d.  Service  by  chaplain  of 
the  Third  Maine. 

Friday,  November  8th.  Two  men  shot  on  the 
third  floor  this  evening  as  they  were  going  away 
from  the  faucet  and  from  the  window  through 
which  they  were  shot.  Tibbetts  shot  through,  from 
back  to  breast,  died  soon  after,  and  the  same  bullet 
lodged  in  the  arm  of  Weeden,  in  front  of  him.  The 
guards  told  his  officer  the  men  were  trying  to  es- 
cape.    An  unlikely  story. 

Sunday,  November  10th.  Service,  subject,  "The 
Leper  of  Syria,"  told  to  go  wash  seven  times.  The 
lepers  of  "Libby"  would  have  been  pleased  to  re- 
ceive just  such  an  order,  and  I  assure  you  that  sev- 
eral times  seven  would  not  have  been  too  many  to 
have  gotten  beneath  the  accumulation  of  the  pre- 
vious four  months. 

November  24th.  A  lively  rumor  that  we  are  to 
be  taken  south  soon,  and  as  the  next  tavern  we  stop 
at  may  not  be  so  bountifully  supplied  with  tobaceo. 
we  adjourn  to  our  loft  and  take  all  the  loose  tobacco 


32  EXTRACTS   FROM   MY   DIARY, 

we  think  we  can  keep  out  of  sight  of  the  guard.  The 
plugs  we  pressed  are  already  stowed  away  for  just 
such  an  emergency.  I  don't  know  how  many  plugs 
I  took  away,  but  I  know  I  gave  a  darkie  twenty  for 
his  pocket-knife,  when  we  were  going  down  the  Ala- 
bama, thinking  I  could  make  rings  and  badges  as 
well  as  some  others.  So  I  made  a  ring ;  you  should 
have  seen  it.  I  never  made  another.  I  brought 
home  two  of  the  plugs  of  tobacco;  one  I  gave  to 
this  Society  many,  years  ago.  The  other  I  have 
here. 

November  25th.  Left  Eichmond  about  noon.  At 
Petersburg  were  put  into  freight  cars,  no  dinner  or 
supper. 

November  27th.  Four  crackers  and  a  piece  of 
bacon  to-day.  Arrived  in  Wilmington  at  dark, 
crossed  Cape  Fear  River  on  steamer,  and  again  put 
in  freighters. 

November  28th.  Four  more  crackers  for  twenty- 
four  hours.  Now,  if  our  reckless  host  will  continue 
thusly  for  a  few  days  more,  we  may  soon  be  rid  of 
the  balance  of  our  bloat. 

November   29th.     Arrived   in   Montgomery,   Ala- 


AND    FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  33 

bania,  just  before  dark,  and  transferred  to  steamer 
Waverly,  and  sent  down  the  Alabama  River.  The 
next  day  we  turned  up  into  the  Tombigbee,  and 
next  day  into  the  Black  Warrior. 

December  2d.  We  arrived  in  Tuscaloosa,  Ala- 
bama, and  put  up  at  the  United  States  Hotel,  Market 
Street,  and  most  of  us  Rhode  Island  chaps,  with  a 
few  Massachusetts,  New  York  and  Jersey's,  about 
twenty-five  in  all,  were  put  in  a  guest  chamber,  sec- 
ond floor  front. 

Are  you  a  trifle  doubting  about  that  hotel  name? 
Well,  I  was  surprised  at  its  being  left  for  us  to  see ; 
until  I  saw  it  was  not  on  a  signboard,  but  painted 
directly  on  the  clapboards,  and  I  don't  suppose  the 
poor  things  had  had  time,  paint  or  ambition  to 
brush  it  out. 

December  4th.  Bread  and  bacon  for  breakfast, 
ditto  for  supper,  after  which,  for  a  regular  every 
day  bill  of  fare,  we  had  corn  bread,  made  from  corn 
and  cobs  ground  together,  mixed  with  water,  but 
no  salt,1  and  baked  in  dripping  pans  about  three 
inches  deep. 


1  Salt  was  nearly  one  hundred  dollars  per  barrel  in  those  days,  and  a 
little  later  was  much  more. 


34  EXTRACTS    FROM    MY    DIARY, 

December  6th.  The  corn  dodgers  are  entertain- 
ing us  merrily. 

December  7th.  The  cob  and  corn  syndicate  seem 
"To  Have  and  To  Hold"  the  balance  of  power  here 
just  now,  and  if  Uncle  Abe  doesn't  come  to  the  res- 
cue soon,  Yank  will  have  to  put  in  a  requisition  for 
a  bucket  of  Jamaica  Ginger,  or  some  other  pain- 
killing  cordial,  if  he  ever  expects  to  see  Washing- 
ton again.  You  chaps  that  are  familiar  with  old 
Virginia  hoecakes,  may  be  a  little  bit  skeptical 
about  the  cobs  being  in  our  cake,  but  if  they  had 
been  straight  goods  and  no  shoddy  do  you  believe 
a  pack  of  starving  hyenas  would  have  made  bricks 
of  them  for  pillows,  or  used  them  as  grapeshot  at 
midnight  to  quiet  his  too  chatty  roommate?  But 
the  cob-cake  was  not  all  bad.  Let  me  tell  you  how 
we  fixed  him  once;  as  a  treat,  we  were  given  rice 
and  molasses  for  Christmas,  and  then  some  smart 
Yank  took  his  tin  plate,  and  with  a  nail,  nearly 
filled  it  with  holes,  then  turned  it  over  and  pushed 
his  hard  dry  dodger  over  the  grater,  and  behold  it 
was  meal  again,  but  as  an  improvement  over  the 
Confederate    method  of    mixing    with  water  only 


AND   FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  35 

Yank  used  the  molasses  given  him  for  his  rice,  and, 
without  asking  twice  others  were  pleased  to  pool 
their  molasses  rations  with  him.  Then  we  tried 
out  two  or  three  of  our  rations  of  fat  pork,  and,  in 
the  grease  we  fried  this  mixture  of  second-hand  cob- 
meal  and  molasses;  and,  by  the  splendor  of  Rome 
if  it  didn't  turn  out  doughnuts,  and  such  dough- 
nuts! Why,  after  eating  one  of  them  you  could 
speak  in  seven  languages,  if  you  had  the  key.  You 
may  wonder  where  we  did  this  cooking.  Well,  there 
was  a  fireplace  in  this  chamber  of  ours,  but  I  have 
not  the  least  idea  where  we  got  the  fuel.  Diary  and 
memory  both  fail  me  here.  The  tin  plates  we  made 
by  unsoldering  our  canteens. 

Sunday,  December  8th.  Preaching  by  Lieuten- 
ant Church,  of  the  Second,  in  the  parlor  and  hall. 
He  was,  previous  to  1860,  a  preacher  for  the 
Baptists  at  Wakefield,  and  his  daughters  were 
schoolmates  of  mine. 

December  9th.  They  have  made  a  lieutenant  of 
Wirz,  and  put  him  in  charge  here.  He  has  taken 
Burt,  my  chum,  and  of  my  company,  for  his  book- 
keeper.    On  the  11th  we  had  the  play  of  "Macbeth'' 


36  EYTRACTS   PROM   MY   DIARY, 

rendered,  with  one  H.  W.  Eagan,  of  Michigan,  as 
the  star.  Many  of  the  rebel  officers  came  in  with 
chairs  and  placed  themselves  in  front,  where  they 
seemed  to  enjoy  the  play  very  much.  For  me,  it 
was  a  treat,  as  I  had  never  seen  one  of  Shake- 
speare's plays  before,  and  as  I  found  out  later, 
Eagan  was  no  novice  in  the  business,  for  I  met  him 
in  Washington  about  two  years  after,  managing  a 
genuine  theatre. 

Christmas  Day,  1861.  Shade  of  Alexis  Sawyer; 
bread,  white  bread  in  our  hose  this  morning.  Such 
fat  living  must  finally  lead  to  gout. 

January  1,  1862.  Four  of  us  sat  up  last  night 
and  bade  the  old  year  farewell,  and  hoped  the  last 
half  of  it  would  never  come  our  way  again. 

January  4th.  No  meat  to-day,  on  account  of  a 
broken  door. 

January  8th.  Yams  for  supper.  What  luxu- 
ries !     Where  is  the  Confederacy  drifting  to  ? 

January  9th.  Captain  Bowers  and  Lieutenant 
Knight  left  for  home. 

January  25th.     I  bet  Charles  Bean  a  dollar  we 


AND    FROM    MY    EXPERIENCES.  37 

would  be  out  of  this  hotel  by  March  1st,  and  so  we 
were,  but  I  never  saw  the  dollar. 

February  4th.     No  meat  to-day. 

February  12th.  The  anniversary  of  the  birth  of 
our  ever  memorable  Lincoln. 

February  15th.     Our  first  snow  in  Dixie. 

February  22d.  This  is  the  day  we  would  cele- 
brate. It's  a  beautiful  morning,  a  regular  holiday 
for  the  darkies,  and  the  common  in  our  front  is  full 
of  them.  We  throw  up  our  windows  (against  all 
rules  or  practice,  and  if  we  had  done  such  a  thing 
in  Richmond,  would  have  been  shot  before  we  could 
have  gotten  away  from  the  window),  but  we  throw 
up  our  windows  and  we,  the  white  minstrels,  like  a 
score  of  howling  wolves,  give  the  grinning  black 
audience  such  a  treat  with  the  "Star  Spangled  Ban- 
ner," the  "Red,  White  and  Blue,"  and  others,  that 
the  cavity  under  those  darkies'  noses  looked  like  a 
fiery  furnace  with  marble  trimmings.  Then  you 
should  have  seen  them,  men,  women,  and  pickanin- 
nies, rolling,  dancing  and  jumping  over  one  another, 
hats  and  arms  in  the  air,  and  at  every  stop  we 
made,    shouting   for    more,   until,   from  down  the 


38  EXTRACTS   FROM    MY   DIARY, 

street,  with  coat  tails  on  the  horizontal,  conies  old 
Wirz,  up  the  stairs,  two  at  a  clip,  and  into  our 
room,  chirping,  "What  in  Hades  you  tain  fools  try- 
ing to  do?  I  thought  you  Rhode  Island  chaps 
pretty  good  fellows,  but  py  tam  you  get  no  more  meat 
for  two,  three,  four  days,  do  you  see?"  No,  wa 
didn't  see  any  meat  for  two  days,  then  Burt  (so  he 
told  me  afterwards)  interceded  for  us. 

February  26th.  Signed  a  parole  of  honor  this 
p.  m.  Here  is  a  copy  of  it :  "Tuscaloosa,  Alabama, 
Feb.  26,  1862.  We,  the  undersigned,  prisoners  of 
war  to  the  Confederate  States,  swear  that  if  re- 
leased we  will  not  take  up  arms  against  the  Con- 
federate States  during  the  existing  war,  until  regu- 
larly exchanged  and  that  we  will  not  communicate 
in  any  manner  whatsoever  anything  that  might  in- 
jure the  cause  of  the  Confederate  States  which  may 
have  come  to  our  knowledge  of  which  we  may  have 
heard  since  our  capture." 

Saturday,  March  1st.  Good-bye,  old  Tuscaloosa, 
we  are  off  on  the  steamer  George  Sykes.  Just  think 
of  it,  we  are  homeward  bound,  that  joyful  sound, 


AND    FROM   MY   EXPEEIENCES.  39 

and  ret  it  may  not  be,  but  we'll  think  of  that  as  we 
laugh  and  chat  with  the  boys  who  now  are  free. 

March  3d.  Turned  up  into  the  Alabama,  and 
this  afternoon  met  the  steamer  Jeff.  Davis,  with 
troops  and  artillery  going  down  to  Mobile.  The 
pump  of  our  ship  gave  out  about  dark,  but  our  boys 
fixed  it. 

March  5th.  Did  not  run  much  last  night,  it  was 
so  dark  our  pine  torch  at  the  boAV  was  little  better 
than  a  candle.  The  pump  got  tired  again  this 
morning,  so  the  boys  had  to  give  her  another  dose 
of  Yankee  goose  grease.  Arrived  in  Montgomery 
before  noon  and  left  before  dark.  Again  in  freight 
cars,  but  we  do  not  mind  them  now  as  the  doors  are 
wide  open,  no  guard,  and  nearly  as  many  of  the  boys 
outside  as  in.  Three  cheers  for  the  fellow  who 
shook  from  us  our  shackles,  and  dissolved  the 
dream,  which  was  not  all  a  dream. 

March  7th.  About  dark  we  are  reminded  we  had 
two  crackers  for  breakfast,  no  dinner  or  supper. 
It  must  be  we  are  on  the  air  line  or  the  fast  express, 
limited  (to  six  miles  an  hour),  though  there  doesn't 
seem  to  be  much  limit  to    the    fast,    and    the  air, 


40  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

though  filling,  does  not  seem  to  soothe  the  inflamed 
appetite  we  have  acquired  since  getting  out  of 
doors,  and  since  those  few  days  we  had  on  the  laugh- 
ing riplets  of  the  Alabama  and  Tombigbee.  Before 
noon  of  the  12th  we  had  turned  up  in  Raleigh, 
North  Carolina,  about  eight  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  Montgomery,  at  an  average  speed  of  less  than 
five  miles  an  hour.  Of  course,  if  we  were  going 
the  other  way  that  would  be  plenty  fast  enough, 
but  with  liberty  to  the  right  and  left  and  in  front 
of  us,  and  Uncle  Sam  almost  staring  us  in  the  face, 
it  did  seem  tantalizing;  but  after  all,  the  jog  was 
too  fast,  we  arrived  too  soon ;  too  soon  to  dodge  the 
most  unkind  cut  of  all ;  ingratitude  that  cut  close  to 
the  vitals.  The  parole  had  collapsed,  the  motto, 
"Hope,"  and  visions  of  Little  Ehody  had  gone  from 
us;  we  were  driven  back  into  our  cage,  given  a 
couple  of  crackers,  the  doors  were  closed,  the  guard 
replaced,  and  away  we  go  for  another  dose  of  per- 
dition and  purgatory,  Oh,  why  couldn't  they  have 
kept  their  meanness  to  themselves  for  just  another 
week? 

Thursday.   March    13th.     Arrived   in    Salisbury, 


AND  FEOM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  41 

North  Carolina;  our  host  gave  us  some  bread  and 
bacon  about  10.00  a.  mv  but  nothing  more  for  the 
day.  Guess  this  must  be  another  hotel  "Cavity." 
March  14th.  Bread  and  fat  pork  for  breakfast; 
broth  and  pork  for  supper.  The  broth  was  "out  of 
sight"  in  two  minutes,  and  the  pork  would  have 
been  real  nice  if  we  had  had  a  little  fresh  cas- 
tor oil  to  pour  over  it.  Now  just  a  few  words 
about  our  quarters  here.  At  the  time  we  left  Rich- 
mond last  fall,  another  batch  of  several  hundred 
were  sent  to  New  Orleans,  and  just  before  we  ar- 
rived here  those  same  Orleanists  had  come  to  town 
and  taken  possession  of  an  old  three-story  cotton 
or  shoddy  mill.  This  mill  was  near  the  centre  of 
several  acres  that  were  enclosed  with  a  board  fence, 
about  nine  feet  high,  and  around  the  inner  side  of 
which  were  one  and  a  half  story  brick  cottages,  be- 
longing, we  suppose,  to  the  mill  proprietors,  and 
built  for  their  employees.  We  Tuscaloosa  chaps 
were  the  tenants  now,  and  the  ever-thoughtful  Con- 
federacy, to  keep  us  Yanks  from  family  quarrels, 
from  ruinous  gossip,  and  the  borrowing  of  our 
neighbor's  salt,  had  separated  these  cottages  from 


42  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

each  other  by  the  same  style  of  fence  as  that  around 
the  outside,  and  then  had  put  another  on  the  inner 
side  to  keep  us  and  the  Orleanists  from  swapping 
gum.  So  we  have  a  little  yard  now,  but  Mr.  Reb 
knows  very  well  we  can't  use  it  with  our  shredded 
and  soleless  shoes. 

Sunday,  April  6th.  Three  of  our  men  shot  last 
night. 

April  20th.  They  let  the  boys  out  of  the  factory 
into  the  large  yard,  one  floor  a  day  now,  and  some 
of  them  they  are  having  to  bury  alive,  up  to  their 
chins.  Doubtless  many  of  you  have  seen  or  heard 
of  "deadheads,"  but  here  was  the  other  kind,  a  droll 
as  well  as  sombre  spectacle.  A  dozen  or  more, 
live  and  human  heads,  sticking  up  just  above  the 
ground;  just  heads  and  nothing  more.  A  queer 
looking  crop,  and  how  it  would  have  pleased  some 
of  the  ladies  of  the  Confederacy  to  have  gotten  into 
that  lot  with  a  lawn  mower  or  a  tennis  racquet.  So 
much  for  scurvy. 

May  1st.  Received  my  first  letter  from  home. 
Just  think  of  it,  there  are  people  yet  living  in  the 
United  States.     I  wonder  if  the  Richmond  papers 


AND    FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  43 

know  about  this,  we  should  have  supposed  from  the 
way  they  talked  last  fall  that  the  last  of  the  "Mud- 
sills" would  have  been  wiped  out  before  this.  The 
above  letter  was  the  only  one  I  received  of  many 
that  were  sent  to  me. 

May  8th.  Rumors  floating  around  that  we  are  to 
have  another  start  for  freedom,  and  maybe  that  ac- 
counts for  Johnnie  allowing  us  to  have  a  concert 
in  the  big  yard  this  afternoon. 

May  16th.     Signed  another  parole. 

May  19th.  Had  another  dose  of  ague,  chills,  and 
fever,  yesterday;  not  much  better  to-day. 

May  21st.  Ten  months  ago,  Johnnie,  there  were 
too  many  of  you,  but  to-day,  this  scratch  lot  of 
Jack-o-lanterns  are  thinking  they  would  like  to  try 
it  over  again  with  you.  And  to-day  the  great 
game  of  baseball  came  off  between  the  Orleanists 
and  Tuscaloosans,  with  apparently  as  much  enjoy- 
ment to  the  Eebs  as  the  Yanks,  for  tbey  came  in 
hundreds  to  see  the  sport,  and  I  have  seen  more 
smiles  to-day  on  their  oblong  faces  than  before  since 
I  came  to  Eebeldom,  for  they  have  been  the  most 
doleful  looking  set  of  men  I  ever  saw,  and  that 


44  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

Confederate  gray  uniform  really  adds  to  their 
mournful  appearance.  The  game  was  a  tie,  eleven 
each,  but  the  factory  fellows  were  skunked  three 
times,  and  we  but  twice.  Good,  Mr.  Eeb,  we  will 
overlook  quite  a  little  of  that  black  Friday  busi- 
ness at  Raleigh  for  the  pleasure  you  have  permitted 
us  to  partake  of  this  afternoon. 

May  22d.  About  two  hundred  of  the  boys 
started  for  home  this  morning.  We  signed  another 
parole  this  afternoon,  and  after  so  much  of  this 
parole  signing  we  are  reminded  of  the  fellow  down 
in  Richmond  over  a  hundred  years  ago  who  wanted 
liberty  or  death,  and  that's  the  condition  we  have 
arrived  at.  only  we  would  substitute  for  death 
sixteen  ounces  of  broiled  porter  house,  a  pot  of 
Mocha  Java,  and  a  clean  shirt  each  morning  during 
the  remainder  of  our  stay  here. 

May  23d.  Left  Old  Salisbury  this  morning  and 
are  in  high  hopes  the  hardened  Pharaohs  will  let 
Israel  go  this  time.  Passed  through  Raleigh  and 
at  dark  came  up  to  where  the  boys  had  a  break- 
down  yesterday.     Arrived   in   Goldsboro   about   9, 


AND    FROM    MY    EXPERIENCES.  45 

where  we  stayed  in  the  cars  the  remainder  of  the 
night. 

May  24th.  Had  some  crackers  for  breakfast,  and 
away  we  go  again.  Arrived  at  Tarboro,  and  taken 
to  the  Court  House  for  the  night,  where  we  found 
the  party  that  left  Salisbury  the  day  before  us. 
Now  is  the  winter  of  our  discontent  beginning  to 
fade  away,  and  the  clouds  of  doubt  and  despair,  to 
disperse  by  this  soothing  dose  of  tar  cordial. 

Sunday,  May  25,  1862.  Left  Tarboro  and  the 
final  of  our  bondage  in  this  ghostly  wilderness  of 
torture  and  famine  at  8.00  a.  m.,  on  two  scows  or 
flat  boats,  towed  by  the  tug  "Col.  Hill,"  down  the 
Tar  River  for  over  seventy  miles,  and  until  nearly 
sunset,  when  we  came  in  sight  of  that  beautiful, 
that  glorious  old  Star  Spangled  banner  at  Little 
Washington,  North  Carolina.  Then  you  should 
have  heard  that  drove  of  wild  skeletons  shout  and 
howl.  The  Johnnies  tried  to  squelch  us  with  fearful 
threats,  but  the  returned  exiles  told  them  they  would 
pour  them  overboard,  guns  and  all,  if  they  dared 
interfere,  for  you  see  we  had  nothing  in  us  but  ten 
months  of  compressed  air  and  suppressed  shouts, 


46  EXTRACTS    FROM   MY   DIARY, 

and  they  had  got  to  come  out  now,  to  make  room  for 
a  renewed  and  more  loyal  admiration  of  George 
Washington,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  flag  of  the 
free.  Well,  good-bye,  Jeff,  sorry  to  leave  you,  wish 
you  would  go  along  with  us.  The  boys  on  the  Po- 
tomac would  be  awfully  glad  to  see  you  and  ex- 
change grips,  and,  if  you  would  come  over  and  just 
let  Uncle  Abe  talk  to  you  about  thirty  minutes  the 
war  would  be  over  to-morrow.  But  Jeff  wouldn't 
listen  to  us,  so  we  pulled  up  alongside  and  landed 
on  the  deck  of  the  Pilot  Boy,  and  from  there  were 
transferred  to  the  Eastern  Cossack,  where  we  were 
fed  and  then  allowed  to  scrub  up  and  put  on  a  clean 
shirt  if  we  could  get  one.  Say,  comrades,  but  you 
ought  to  have  seen  that  uniform  we  landed  in,  and 
did  you  ever  try  to  wear  a  single  suit,  i.  e.,  shirt 
and  trousers,  continuously  for  ten  months,  nights 
as  well  as  days?  If  not,  don't  begin  now,  it's  too 
monotonous.  Then,  for  over  three  hundred  days 
we  had  been  waiting  for  just  such  an  opportunity 
as  this  to  satisfy  a  ceaseless  longing  for  food,  and 
here  it  was  in  abundance  and  we  didn't  care  for  a 
crumb. 


AND   FROM   MY   EXPERIENCES.  47 

May  26th.  Left  Little  Washington  just  after 
sunrise  and  came  to  anchor  at  3  p.  m.,  a  mile  below 
Newbern.  Coffee,  soup  and  crackers  for  supper. 
Oh!  but  wasn't  that  coffee  rich?  And  can  I  ever 
forgive  those  Confederate  thieves  for  robbing  me  of 
so  many  precious  doses;  just  think  of  it,  in  three 
hundred  days  there  was  lost  to  me,  forever,  so 
many  hundred  pots  of  good  old  Government  Java. 
I  don't  know  about  it ;  though  I  have  been  taught  to 
forgive,  seventy  times  seven  is  a  good  many,  and  it's 
a  long  way  back  to  last  July.  Of  course,  I  expect 
to  forgive  them  sometime,  but  I  do  not  wish  to  de- 
cide hastily  and  then  have  to  use  up  all  my  leisure 
in  repenting. 

May  27th.  Hauled  up  to  the  wharf  about  noon. 
The  boys,  thirty  at  a  time,  got  a  pass  to  go  ashore. 
Gilmore's  Band  came  on  board  at  dark  and  gave  us 
a  treat  that  set  our  spinal  column  shivering  from 
truck  to  keel. 

May  28th.  I  received  a  pass,  went  ashore,  shook 
hands  with  General  Burnside,  and  saw  three  of  my 
old  schoolmates  belonging  to  Auditor  Chase's  Bat- 
tery P,  stationed  here.     Returned  to  ship  at  noon. 


48  EXTRACTS   FROM   MY   DIARY, 

The  general  came  to  see  us  in  the  afternoon,  then 
we  left  the  dock  and  got  aground  twice  before  get- 
ting back  to  our  anchorage. 

May  29th.  Got  underway  early  and  went  into 
Hatteras  for  coal,  then  farewell  to  old  Carolina, 
and  away  we  go  for  the  deep  blue  sea.  Quite  rough 
outside,  many  of  the  boys  seasick. 

May  30th.  George  B.  Atwood,  of  Providence,  lost 
overboard  the  past  night.  Poor  fellow,  so  near  the 
goal  he  had  been  reaching  for,  and  then  lose  all. 
Out  of  sight  of  land  all  day,  came  in  sight  of  Barne- 
gat  at  dark. 

Saturday,  May  31st.  Arrived  in  New  York  at 
daylight.  The  Great  Eastern  is  up  the  Hudson  at 
anchor.  She  is  not  so  monstrous-looking  as  I  had 
imagined.  Later  she  came  down  past  us  on  her  way 
out  to  sea.  Just  after  noon  we  were  taken  ashore 
on  tug  J.  Chase,  and  marched  up  to  the  Soldiers 
Retreat  on  Broadway,  where  we  were  given  rations, 
and  at  5  p.  m.,  marched  to  the  dock  and  on  board  the 
steamer  Comonwealth,  bound  for  Stonington.  I 
had  to  back  up  to  a  steam  pipe  all  the  way  to  keep 
from  shaking  my  bones  out  of  joint,  with  another 


AND   FROM    MY   EXPERIENCES.  49 

charming  allowance  of  my  never-to-be-shaken  friend, 
the  chills. 

Arrived  in  Providence  at  4  a.  m.,  where  relatives 
and  friends  had  been  at  the  station  waiting  for  us 
several  hours. 

After  a  furlough  at  home  of  five  weeks  I  was 
ordered  to  report  at  "Camp  Parole,"  Annapolis, 
Maryland,  there  to  await  orders  for  "an  exchange," 
which  came  to  us  the  following  October.  Then  I 
started  again  for  the  front  and  joined  my  regiment 
at  Downville,  Maryland,  Friday,  October  10,  1862, 
after  an  absence  of  over  fourteen  months,  and  after 
nearly  one-half  the  boys  I  had  left  in  my  company, 
had  been  wounded,  killed,  promoted,  discharged  or 
sent  to  some  hospital.  For  myself,  I  got  into 
trouble  again  with  the  Rebs  at  Fredericksburg,  in 
December,  1862;  Gettysburg  and  Chancellorsville, 
1863;  also  again  at  Fredericksburg,  1863,  and  in 
1864  at  the  Wilderness,  Spottslyvania,  Cold  Harbor, 
where  Johnnie  gave  me  another  reminder  of  his  care- 
lessness with  a  loaded  gun. 


